GMA leads Pampanga voters on July 28

LUBAO, Pampanga — Everything depends on the weather.

But President Arroyo is expected to lead voters in 10 Pampanga towns on July 28 when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) finally holds barangay elections which were suspended due to massive flooding in these areas.

Mrs. Arroyo will cast her vote at the Lubao Elementary School in Barangay San Nicholas where her father, the late former President Diosdado Macapagal, was born.

Her eldest son, Vice Gov. Mikey Arroyo, also votes in the same precinct.

The Comelec reset the July 15 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in the 10 Pampanga towns and in 10 barangays elsewhere in the province, apart from four municipalities in Bataan, after week-long monsoon rains caused heavy flooding as high as four to five feet in some areas.

Yesterday, floodwaters rose by six inches in low-lying communities, including some parts of this town, following the heavy downpour Saturday night.

About 45 percent of Pampanga’s about 900,000 registered voters are expected to troop to the polls on July 28.

Provincial Comelec supervisor Artemio Lambino said he expects an even heavier turnout of voters this time. There was an estimated 80 percent turnout in the July 15 polls elsewhere in the province.

"The news of the suspension of voting in the flooded areas increased the voters’ awareness of the barangay polls. With President Arroyo leading the voters on July 28, I think more people would go out and vote," he said.

Apart from Lubao, the July 28 elections will be held in the towns of Guagua, Sasmuan, San Luis, San Simon, Candaba, Masantol, Minalin and Macabebe and in the barangays of Sta. Juliana, Lourdes, Pandaras, San Juan, San Felipe, San Jose, Sta. Lucia, Sto. Niño, Sto. Rosario, San Pedro, San Nicolas, and Del Pilar in San Fernando City; San Lorenzo, San Pablo, Sto. Rosario, and San Nicolas in Mexico, and San Mateo and Candating in Arayat.

In Bataan, the belated polls will be held in Dinalupihan, Hermosa, Orani and Balanga City.